Apple has been awarded a patent for head-mounted virtual reality headset

Apple has been granted a patent for an iPhone-compatible headset. The latest patent has been granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The company might be looking to compete against Google and Samsung in the rapidly evolving virtual reality (VR) market.

The portable electronic device, which is titled as ‘ Head-Mounted Display Apparatus’ will be the Virtual Reality headset powered by an iPhone. Though the functionality is almost as similar as Samsung’s Gear VR headset. The patent was filed back in 2008. The company was previously granted patents for a smart pen, magic wands and wireless charging, and of course a watch, now materialized as the Apple Watch.

Unlike the Gear VR, which uses head-tracking and a few physical buttons for user control, Apple’s design features a small hand-held remote control that looks similar to an old click-wheel iPod. Similar to Gear VR, Apple’s proposed device uses the screen of the inserted mobile phone as the headset’s display. As per the patent images, there is a separate, hand-held remote control that can be used to access the UI on the VR headset.